


The age of Derangement: The fall of the shadow and the journey into the west

by MeerkatMatt2



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Elysium, Gen, Shadow Carja, faro roborts, nora - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-11-21 12:21:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11357406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeerkatMatt2/pseuds/MeerkatMatt2
Summary: Elysium and Thebes, two last bastions of pre-Faro plague civilization long believed to be non existent or all dead, they mysteriously thaw out shortly before the hour of Hades. these few residents to he metal world are plunged head first in the savage nightmare of the derangement and the chaos that comes within. meanwhile strange animals not seen in entrusts are returning, the consequences of the derangement will have global consequences as the other eight cradle's descendants fight to survive against one another, mad sub function AIs and Hephaestus robots.





	1. The sack of elysium

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanficiton here, there is bound to be some mistakes, any constructive criticism is welcomed.

Juan, For him It seemed like it had been a thousand, years, it probably had been in fact. The cryovaults of Elysium finally thawed open, over nine hundred years since they last closed, or at least what was the clock on the wall outside the cryopods said. The last of them had sealed themselves forty years into their stay in Elysium  
After the defeat of planet earth in the faro war, some of the last lifeforms on earth lived here beneath the foothills of Rockies, north east of Salt Lake City. The interior of the last refuge of man was still sparkling clean, clean of the debris of the millennia. Now it was being filled rapidly for time mist emitting from the machines. Juan was one of the six hundred and seventy that had elected to freeze themselves, he was now just beginning to stir with the 669 others, his brown eyes flickering open again for the first time in centuries, he could see the people in pods across the hall, also beginning to move their limbs slowly and somewhat painfully and awkward them as if taking their extremities form long distance travel numbness. A girl, less than fourteen years of age was in the pod directly over form him, one of the children of those scientists that worked here after all some could bring two loved ones down here with them.  
The people within were now in the process of thawing themselves, beginning to move again The hope now was that project zero dawn had worked. The lids began to open, making a creasing and hissing noise as they lifted, Juan shielded his eyes when he remembered that everyone that has cryogenically frozen themselves without clothes on, if they had been clothes the clothes would have frozen into their flesh, thankfully synthetic non-biodegradable plastic like synthetic clothing began to fall out form old locker above themselves, quickly finding a fitting set, the people that were stumbling around quickly dressed themselves properly.  
He finally got himself up and straitened himself to find another one of the staff, now with a focus on her head viewing the screens relating to the outside working at this point.  
“We cannot contact GAIA, and out outwards camera is covered in debris. The other systems are off line.” Samantha, one of the experts in Minerva’s branch.  
“Damn it, truly hoped that she worked, best luck that she worked and the system fell apart due to natural decomposition, worst case and everything is for nothing, now is there anything outside the window on the surface floor.” Juan had to ask, they already had been milling out outside the cryopod for several minutes. About six hundred and seventy had chosen the option to be frozen, an impressively large amount, the youngest had been mere children, the oldest around sixty, any older and they might as well live out their days in Elysium. Now they were all still coming out of cryo. The various thawed out people were finding each other again, several were sobbing over the fact that they were the only ones left, possibly of human kind or of the old civilisations. The clean white halls were only broken up by the people walking around, then came screaming from upstairs.  
“What now?!” Juan shouted in surprise as the screams came from the pod rooms beyond them  
Juan’s fears of the faro robots breaking in dramatically increased, his heart thumping as people began to scream and run, the shouting coming from the furtherst cryo pod bay  
“What’s going on!” he had to yell out as everyone was running in all kinds of directions, mosty towards the entrance levels into the Elysium facility, a verifiable stampede had broken out as they ran further in.  
“We’re being attacked! We’ve been broken in!” a loud woman’s screaming came from further up the halls,  
“By what exactly, is it the faro robots!” Juan yelled.  
“No, they’re people! And their coming to kill us!”  
“What! how! Why!” Juan yelled back as there was a momentary relief followed by extreme panic.  
“Someone is closing the door at the end of cryopod station 2” Samantha called out again.  
“What about the people in crypod room one!” Juan tried to maintain a conversation above the yelling and screaming of people running backward into the main central hub.  
“ The doors’ they’re closed, people have been locked out!”  
Samantha continued to listen to the intercom, the n broken down sobbing.  
“You don’t want to hear this. Though hit appears some of us that have thawed out have lived, there was screams as they were killed, now there I only the sound of chains clanking, and people sobbing. , possibly implying our people are being led out of here in chains.”  
“Oh god WHAT! why on earth they do that, I mean we helped create the world to survive them. Why would they attack us, any why the primitive Armour and weaponry, words, spears, metal chest plate form leather, fabric and pieces of machines and steel plates. Why, there must be a reason.  
“And here is the weird thing, they have no guns, everything else seemed to be medieval or form earlier times about them, they still speak English however.  
Just who were these people and what on earth did they do to earn their ire.

Tobias

It had all started a few hours earlier when he had stumbled out of his cryopod, completely naked, much to e embarrassment of the others there they had quickly dressed themselves in the preserved clothes that had lasted across millennia of potential decomposition  
No sooner than they had started to move around that it was noticed that there was a boarded up wooden wall at one end of the hall, a breach into the facility, not good, not good at all, as it later turned out, though it at least confirmed that there were trees in this new world. Then they had started coming, it started with a scream, then an axe had hit the boards, splintering the wooden boards, for a second Tobias had thought that maybe rescuers were coming to dig them out, but the people within the bunker had stood our distance. It was when the last push through was made by spears, aiming to stab whomever was on the other side that it he invaders intentions were revealed. It was then the shouting came and people began to back in terror.  
“One last push, we’ll be soon in there.”  
“Prepare to breach!” another sounded.  
“We will bring the terror of the sun upon these sinful old ones!”, the last one was not like the others at all.  
“FOR THE SUN IN SHADOW” a particularly blood thirsty woman’s voice echoed out through the chamber.  
“The buried shadow shall be proud of our achievement!” another roared out in glee as he barged through the doors. He swung his spear around searching for a suitable target there was another problem, there was nothing to arm themselves against.  
“RUN!” Anthony, another one of the staff, from the Poseidon team yelled out a, sure enough people began running very quickly as fast and as far as they would from the invading soldiers, they spilled in, though the orders were finally barked out.  
“Take alive as many as you can!”  
This was not good at the slightest, at least there was chance of surviving these crazed backwards medieval bastards, Apollo was meant to teach them better.  
The crowd ran cream, some crying some screaming, then the doors at the other end began to close, “no, not the doors YOUR LOCKING US OUT YOU BASTARDS!” one woman wailed as the door separating the two crowds began to shut, inadvertently sealing the other side out one of the fleeing people screamed. The metal doors continued to screech inwards, slowly shutting themselves with a most terrible metallic screeching, behind them their attacks came barging in, some fell behind, they were tacked and pulled down, evidently being handcuffed. Others continued to attack, at least someone had thrown a released fire extinguisher at the attackers, knocking one flat on the ground, before long they were all cornered against the closed door. The group turned around, crammed together, trembling in the corner, some outright surrender, others were killed when they tried to fight back, bodies packed together like sheep in the corner of a pen. He knew the only option to survive was be taken willingly, perhaps there was still a chance to escape from them.

Once in chains and shackles, they were lead out, one by one in line, they passed through stone tunnels beneath the surface evidently built by some of these resident of this new world, those in the line was re sobbing uncontrollable, some wailing, others would had cursed their captives, but the sharp end of a spear shut them up. Part way through the doors were kicked open again, of which they were paraded out into sunlight, shielding his eyes with his handcuffed hands, Tobias tried to look around, there was what had been a town, round metal ,wooden and stone building stood in a sorry state the timbers burnt and destroyed, the roofes recently collapsed inwards on some of them, corpses littered the street, pecked and scavenged upon by crows and ravens, dozens laid slain through what had been homes, markets, warehouses, a military barracks and other places, the clothing on those slain seemed to be dull colored fabrics with occasional pieces of metal Armour.  
Smoke continued to billow off from buildings, the dilapidated and destroyed buildings continued for several curving streets, partway through the lands outside the walls could be seen over the shattered walls, smoking burnt farmlands and homestead could be seen beyond, beyond that on the hills were a few patches of conifer forest, much of which had previously cut down.  
Going through the street they could see the remains of Hephaestus machines scattered among the dead, scrapper, chargers, even a sawtooth were all lying broken and destroyed, the sawtooth had numerous arrows sticking out of its synthetic muscle tissues.  
After several minutes, they were herded into what must have been the town square, or circle in this case, there were other slaves all chained and herded into the circle. The original towns folk form what it appeared. Looking around something caused Tobias to hold his breath within his throat, behind the soldiers, a tall figure walked upon four metallic legs, a working Hades corrupted scarab robot.


	2. Oseram Calvary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is the second chapter of this fanfiction, there is a reason for the strangely out of place animals, exactly how they got there is a mystery awaiting explanation.

Juan

Hours passed, there were nervous murmurers, sobs, attempts to open the way outside, anger at the invades and other expressions of the various stages of grief.  
the doors slid open several hours later by then the afternoon sun was beginning to set in the sky, Juan came out with the others,, gasping in horror at the corpses over the floor, at least a dozen of Elysium’s staff laid slain, stabbed and slashed by bladed weaponry. Many of these bodies were piled on top of one another

“Why would anyone do this! What did we do to deserve this!” Samantha exclaimed in horror, Juan was not feeling so confident either, he was about to sit down and give in to despair at the sight of the pile of corpses near the shut door, almost all were of those that had been taken out from the cryopods, somehow at least two of their attackers had been killed as well when there was some movement under two of the corpses,

“There’s survivors!” Jules, another scientist called out. Under the corpses of two of the Elysium inhabitants was one of the attackers, a little girl, aged around about fifteen, bleeding from along cut across her abdomen, evidently injured by one of the survivors during the melee, she pulled herself up, waving a knife around in fear, which was evident form the panic stricken expression on her face..

“Wait, please don’t kill me, I’m forced into this with the others, if we failed the shadow carja would burn my village next!” Juan stopped, wait so their attackers were called shadow carja. By the sounds of it not a good bunch of people at all.

“ Kill you, no we won’t do that, someone get a first aid kit!” Juan called out to the others.”

“Who are you?” one of the survivors asked.

"My name is Talakash, I’m form the northern tenakath tribes, the shadow carja pressed us into fighting, they raided the village, taking the children, all of them were taken.”  
The girl was usual, only a bit over five feet tall, her skin was covered partly in black paints interspaced with white and red striped a pigments, her hands were there natural pale colour, her clothing rags, hides and machine parts held together.

“Evidently there is more than one culture of people out there, so maybe others are not as monstrous as the ones whom attack us. Talking about outside, at some point we will need to leave to go above ground.” Juan quickly put this together,  
It was difficult to convince anyone one to go above ground at first, but after several minutes of arguments and deliberations Juan offered to be in the first group.  
The bright red of the sunset was partly obscured by the bright glow of the flames upon the pine forests on neighbouring hill sides and thick smoke and cloud cover over the ruins, the buildings of the town were now empty burnt out husks. The metal and stone parts are left, the only parts that didn’t burn.  
Some of the bodies had not died a slow death, a woman was nailed to one of the doorways, multiple nails up and down her arms. In another spot chared remains belonged to someone whom had been set alight while chained up. There were still copses littering the streets, men women, children, an entire town had been ripped to shreds just to get to them.

Why, why did they do this, is there anyone left alive. There was evidently a fight, some of the black armoured men had been slain, other copses were evidently soldiers,. Metal peices sown into leather, large stomach plates of metal, huge hammers, swords, bows, other primitive weaponry, were on or around the corpses, spread out over the ground, perhaps some of apollos knowledge was rediscovered.  
There was a faint “Help Me!” coming from a downed building, quickly some of the people leaving the bunker started to lift and push the fallen beams aside. They helped an oseram worked out from under the downed beams. There were a few other survivors, pulling themselves out from this debris, some just breaking down sobbing as they left their buildings, their lively hoods turned to ash around them.  
The street that they had emerged from had been mostly saved when someone had gone around the corner, stopping and gasping at the sight beyond.  
There was the horrendous sight upon the end of the street, dozens of corpses stacked together, many the defeated townsfolk, two or three were Elysium residents, and a behemoth lay under the pile, on top of the pile were a pair of scarab faro machines feasting upon the pile of corpses.

“That, that cannot be!” one of the horrified onlookers exclaimed at the existence of the robots that destroyed the world of old. The two machines were picking up corpses with tier tails, then ripping them apart in a tug of war like the vultures and crows that were feasting on other parts of the pile, they ripped the bodies apart then unleashed hades nanobots that rapidly reproduces, stripping the flesh from the bones, spraying contaminated blood onto the corpses below, more Nanobots began to multiply and feast on the pile, spreading down, the vultures , crows, ravens and foxes moved back as the pile began to shrink.

“Has the faro plague started anew?” Samantha gasped in disbelief at the sight of the disintegrating bodies, at least one person wretched their stomach at the sight of this.  
They turned their hatred filled red eyes towards the group, readying their guns to fire while staring them down then violently exploded, a barrage of rocket fire hit the two unsuspecting faro robots, sending chunks of flaming metal shrapnel all over the place, in the distance a thunderjaw looked on at the destruction before moving onto the next objective.  
The group looking the other way was also surprised, some of the remaining bandit mercenaries had stayed behind to pick up the loot, upon seeing the horrified old ones, they stoper their looting, pillaging and whatever they were doing to one of the survivors on the ground, the woman whom they threw aside let out a whimper as she landed upon the ground, behind them some of the bandits were cooking over a campfire, tiny set of arms were being roasted over a fire

They picked up their weapons, then called upon a hades corrupted ravager, whom leapt out from a side lane, and then called to charge.  
At this point some of the bandits quickly rose from their barbeque of human flesh and joined in the charge, the Elysium residents quickly turned tail as the ravage barraged forwards, leaping into battle swatting at the survivors, one being flung into a stone wall, dying on impact. The machine jumped, grabbing another, crushing her in it’s jaws where she still screamed, still screaming as the knifes impaled her compelty and the machine was shaking her to death.  
As the remaining bandits and the ravage charged forwards, Juan and the rest had turned to run, as a strange deep horn like sound filled the air, the ravager immediately tried to move it’s gun to a higher angle, before it could gate far, the other bandits ran into a gap between two sets of buildings, not looking at the street beyond, they ewer then hit by the first Calvary charge in North America in over a thousand years.

The Calvary came charging in, oseram war cries rang out as warhammers, arrows and spears met the ground attackers.  
Shouts, bellows and screams ran out as the twenty something bandits and the few remaining shadow Carja were bowled over and trampled underfoot, the ravager was hit by several explosive arrows and a lance as it whirled it’s paw around, swiping amount and it’s rider, killing both as it rolled over form the impact of flying through the air, dismounting some of the other riders. The oseram came back around, firing arrows into the whirling machine, the foot soldiers were now smashed by the Warhammers and lances or were beating a retreat, one retreating soldier ran towards the confused and surprised group of Elysium residents. They turned back to the fray, helmet over his head and ran back at the machine, now badly damaged it tried to charge, bowling one of the mounts over and charging down the street, the lance was held steady by the rider as he approached into a gallop ,the long steel lance penetrated the freeze canisters on the machines undersides other arrows had exploded, destroying the energy power cell, with that machine out of the way, three of the riders turned, two of which were on two humped camels, the third on a strider.  
Bactrian camels were not something Juan was expecting to see in this part of the world, let alone as a beast of battle. The riders came out on their mounts, circling the group form the metal world, the riders, mostly men but at least one woman were dressed in medieval like armour with leathers and metal pieces sown in.  
The three riders remove their helmets as they viewed the surprised 21st century peoples, their commander at the left, Olin in the middle and upon his strider to the right.

“Exactly who are you?” one of the Elysium staff had to ask the rider to the left.

“I am commander Orarks of the Steelfang clan of the Oseram people, we were called here to save as many as we could form the shadow carja assault, sadly it appears we were too late to save the town, but we have managed to save most of you old ones. Sylens has told us of this place called Elysium beneath the ground. Is it true that this is the last holdout of the old ones, cryopreserved for centuries. “  
Orarks asked, before Juan replied  
“Yes that is us indeed, just what kind of hell were we thawed into.” Juan had to reply, still okking around in horror at the corpses strung up to hang.

“Sylens thawed you and closed the doors, otherwise the shadow carja would have destroyed everyone while they were still frozen. Thankfully we have saved you, at the expense of our own people.” Orarks continued, with a sombre expression now on his face.  
“Saved us, dozens of us are in slavers chains with the shadow carja right now!” Samantha angrily yelled out, Juan tensed at the fact that maybe insulting a military leader is a bad idea.

“And they have taken thousands of our own over the years, during the red raids they came, some of us helped the sun carja during the first civil war, and now the shadow carja are doing it again but with their demon machines helping them. From what I have gathered from sylens the scarab and kopesh machines were responsible for the complete destruction of your world. This must be prevented from happening again. We know that one of the few people that could stop it exists, her name is Aloy, from the Nora tribe, she supposedly a clone of Elizabeth sobeck.” Oraks explained the situation with the shadow carja while behind the village the rest of the army caught up.  
Sure enough two hundred extra soldiers came down the hillside, many carrying their weapons, swords, axes, bows, tearblast guns and about five cannoneers among them, they walked down into the burnt village several porters were dragging carts in their convoy, a few camels also drew carts, the soldiers began to spread out into the village to find more remaining shadow carja or their allies.

“Someone get a medic!” another one of the oseram yelled out, many, many people had been wounded, even some of the camels needed medical attention, at least one came l had an arrow stuck in it’s side.  
Soon some of the survivors went back inside to tell the news of what happened outside and to get the medical supplies needed to heal everyone.

“Say now that we will settle down for the night, mind we explain each other at tonight’s camp? Another oseram, Olin bought up the query.

“Sure, why not, just where did you get those camels?” Juan asked, noting that there was no one really in charge of the Elysium residents.

“Up north, they only turned up eight years ago, they came with an old book on how to trian and ride them as well” orarks explained, patting his mount as it rubbed it’s head into his armored chest, nearly punching him over in the process.


	3. Uratu land

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yay for underdeveloped fractions, anyway we move onto another subplot in this chapter, there will be alot of world building and exploration in this fanficiton.

In the open cornfields of Utaru land, an exhausted carjan messenger tried to carry himself along on his feet, stumbling along a path between corn rows, he almost collapsed, stumbling over, landing on his arm before pulling himself back us again, he turned back around, staring in wide eyed terror as he tried to run, a corrupter and three corrupter ground thresher machines were hot on his tail, the ground threshers had large stomping feet, a tapering metallic tail, a shield on their head and three “horns” tow of which were movable and extendable drills, the closes to the nose was connected to an umber of different liquid tanks, from blaze, to chill water, to acid, lime and other liquids. Their camera eyes kept track on the fleeing human.

The corruptor fired, the carjan messenger dived for cover, which now covered the ground behind him in hades nano bots. The threshers barged ahead, coming up closer and closer. Before they could trample him, the messenger rolled off into the corn stalks, the corruptor came now searching for him, the threshers, true to their name now began to rip at the corn stalks, flattening the plants, crushing them beneath their feet, their horns churning the soil as they went, the machines believed the corn fields.

The scarab leapt towards the messenger, when something cause the machine to spin and whip it’s tail as the now crawling messenger, catching him and fling him into a field, no sooner than it had done this then a ball of flame come flying down from the sky, colliding with the machine, exploding violently causing it to keel over. The threshers turned to see what happened, there amount into the centre of the road, when the messenger saw a strange site, men up to the backs of strange beasts riding towards them with their bowstrings pulled, freeze arrows at the ready, the Urratu defenders arrived. The beasts galloped along, their long hairy tails wavering in the wind. They arrows were loosened, some bounced off others, exploded sending chill water onto the machines, freezing up their joints, when the urratu got close enough ,they fired again and others in the gourd grabbed explosive lances, riding up to the machines, plunging them into the spinning and turning threshers, these spears exploded with a tear grenade, breaking the two of here three threshers part. The last one charges out meet the mounted warriors, the soldiers on horseback ran forwards and back, around in circles never letting themselves fall within striking range, more arrows were loosed, hitting in gaps between the armour, so the machine was both freezing and ablaze, the messenger scrambled to his feet as he watch the machine thrash around, trampling the corn, other weapons were used, rope casters had tied it down while more ammunition was throng at it, tear blast canons were fired into its side, dislodging pieces of around, until its core was visible, at which point their warcheif rode in with the last of the explosive spears, driving the lance inward before running out, he reached over and grabbed the messenger by the hand, dragging him away as the spear exploded, killing the last of the hades corrupted bots, it’s nano machines spilling like blood into the trampled corn, which was soon consumed. 

He was helped onto his feet when one of the riders dismounted, his around made of wood and various woven plant fibres with a tiny amount of fur in there as well. The other soldiers walked their horses around as several soldiers on foot caught up, they looked around at the machines, they begun to take out their axes and swords, cutting and breaking off useful parts of the thresher machines that laid slain upon the ground.

“Carja, what brings you to our lands, if had not been for the last group of messengers apologizing for the red raids, we might have had to kill you, though as much as we hate to do so. What news do you bring from the sundom?” The warcheif Draulu asked

“The sun king has sent me as an envoy, we have a common foe that presents a great threat to your people and the world at large. The corrupted machines are under control of a metal devil called hades. It is working with the shadow carja, the northern part of the carjan empire. They want to conquer the southern part of the sundom and begin the red raids again. However, a far worse problem brews, this metal devil supposedly wants to spread it’s corruption everywhere, wake the machines that destroyed the old ones, corrupt the wild machines and destroy our world. We need as much military help as we can and this is the chance for your tribe to get back at the shadow carja and the hades infected robots.” The messenger spoke, cautiously looking up at the rider upon his horse.

 

“Fine, we will ride back to the village in about half an hour.” The warcheif spoke as the fallen threshers were stripped for useful parts.

“Say, messenger, what is your name specifically” Draulu asks

“Tife, my name is Tife.” I was sent by king Avad to help gather support for the final battle against the shadow carja. I we loose and the buried shadow takes the spire, it will raise far more machines than we can fight, it will the end of the world.” Tife spoke before been offered a riderless horse, it’s reins tied to the the horse in front of it. He looked slack-jawed at the strange beast, it’s brown fur seemed not the be there due to how closely it laid flat, it’s long black mane and tail flowed like the hair a woman fresh from a bath, the horse turned it’s head to snort in seemly isvain, he tried to climb on, only for his horse to shake and buck, knocking him of, the horse then whinnied and the uratu among them laughed at his misfortune. flabbergasted he had to try and scramble back on.

“Come now, we need to get to the village, quickly.”

The village was in the centre of acres of corn fields, which stretched around it in all directions, blackberry and juniper trees lines the roads on the way in, in other places these plants expanded into flitted fields along with blue berries and raspberries, Tife could only look around in wonder at these strange new plants.

“Say Drallu, where did you get these marvelous beasts form, such as the one I’m currently riding” Tife had to ask, his gaze diverted a group up smaller horned animals being shepard along the other side of the road. Their rectangular pupils turned to look at him, before bleating and continuing on, along with them was a small wolf like beast, pied brown and white, it ran around the goats, nipping at their heels making them go around the horses.

“The horses, dogs, goats, cattle, sheep, cats and chickens had not been here until the derangement. Some nomads form the far east had found the roaming the wild after being released by strange flying machines, with them came texts from the old ones on how to care for them. Most of these beasts we have received since the end of the red raids, we had to lock the first dogs, goats and chickens underground when the carja first came, though in those days are mostly behind us, hopefully.

The village camp ahead looming over the fields, a strong wooden wall of timbers faced outwards, ready to impale anyone stupid enough to try and climb them spikes pointed outwards form the base around the base was a moat, filled with more spikes the skeletons and armour of several carjan soldiers laid between the spikes, taller single m double and even three story buildings could be seen over the fence, above all of this the massive grain silos, and the great hall could also be seen.

Passing in through the gates, more houses could been seen, colourful dressed urratu tribe members could be seen going in and out of the different buildings, some curious children peered out at the carjan messenger. The clothes upon the peoples were dull yet colorful, mostly greens and yellows mixed with crowns. The vast majority of which was made form plant based materials

There was blow in the town courtyard below a massive circular clearing in between the buildings, poles and beams were erected over the bare earth, decorated with various plants around three of the four sides, some of the urratu appeared to be dancing or some other activity around the center, from what he could gather tife guessed it was religious institution.

The massive hall had four entrances, north, east, west and south, again the plants around their based were correlated to the colours of the dcoraitons on the sides of the buildings, white for winter, green for summer, red for autumn and blue and white for winter, evidently some of the pigments came from machine oils. The horses were eventually taken around and tied up, then one of the massive doors, between the summer and autumn areas opens, puled open by several labours, freemen of course.

The four rulers of the Urratu, democratically elected chieftains sit in each of their spate sides of the halls, though the forth is missing, that was reserved for Drallu, whom came around to sit in the red seat of autumn, autumn being the time for death , decay, harvest and war. The was to manage the preparations for winter including harvest, warfare, military matters and logistics.

The winter court managed how to treat the winter old, death and funerals, how to manage the town in the winter, town planning and law. The spring circle managed the building and expansion, sowing family planning and diplomacy. All the other tasks fell between them and the summer chieftain.

Drallu took his seat, placing his knife down to mark that session was in place, the winter chieftain and the spring cheiftan were both women, while the autumn and spring ones were men. It was at the at point the doors around them were closed, it was then tife noticed that the winter cheiftess, Alaise had a soft fluffy cloak made form white wolf fur and grouse feathers, Drallu’s cape was of fox fur, machine cables and autumn leaves, the spring and summer .

It suddenly dawned on him that it was Tife’s time to speak.

“So the carja have sent you to tell us something, last time they appoligised for the war, what is it now?” the winter cheiftess asked, the messenger turned his blue eyes to look as the woman before replying.

“The corruption of the machines, has been infecting carjan, Nora and Urratu lands as you already know. We have information that stated that a a possible way to defeat the corrupted machines has been found, however we do not have long, the shadow carja will attack the sun carja any day now.”

Tife began, still nervously flicking his eyes across the room.

“And what does this have to do with us? The summer cheiftess asked.

“The same dangerous machines have been infesting and destroying your lands, if the shadow carja win, they will slaughet the inhabitants of meridian and the red raids will return with a vengeance, and this time they can convert any machine to their cause, making them unstoppable. They will end the Uratu, there is an even a worse possibility if the shadow carja win. The corruption is caused by a monstrous machine spirit, a hive mind behind the corrupted machines, the shadow carja believe it is the buried shadow itself. If it takes the spire, according to our sources, every other machine in the world will follow it’s commands and destroy our world. What we are offering is a chance to save your world and get vengeance upon some of the carja whom have wronged you n the red raids.”

Tife continued to talk, still nervously sweating when Drallu leaned forwards and muttered.  
“Perhaps it is indeed time for vengeance at long last.”


	4. The beginnings of democracy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> here the oseram and Elysium residents get to know each other. also the first election to find the leader of elysium occurs, before the constitution is finalized.
> 
> Also I am probably going to be publishing less frequently after this chapter.

Juan  
Back at the ruins above Elysium there were problems, six hundred old ones stuck out In the winter snows did not make things easier, the doors to Elysium were opened, there was by far enough housing for them all, even for some of the Oseram, however there were still other concerns.  
Food was chief among them, after consuming the one camel that was killed in the battle and making coats out of it’s wool and fur, there was still a shortage of food and good winter clothing.   
Around the campsite was a ring of ruined walls, the Oseram had begun repairs on the walls, though finding enough building materials proved difficult.  
Two of the camels pulled a large lodgepole pine trunk through a muddy rat as it was hoist into another gap in the walls, the remnants of the stone over the breach served as the foundation. By another one of the fires that dotted the camp.   
As this log was nailed into the walls, more logs were rolled through the gates and chopped to serve a charcoal burner.

“Totally not environmentally freely.” Juan had to snark as he watched the log go up in flames, the camels were then unchained and lead back to camp, only for one bull to bite another, then for both to begin violently jostling around until they broke free of their ropes, violently shoving and biting at one another, eventually the one on the right forced the one of the left down, tying to crush it’s head with its sternum, only when more Oseram come to pull the beasts apart did they divert their attention before being drawn back out again into their own separate ways again. Camels were not easy to work with so it seemed.   
Olin sat around the same fire watching the angry beasts, one of which spat at its handlers.  
“They are more alike us oseram that they initially seemed. Did yu old ones ever use these beasts?”

Olin asked, Juan looked on and spoke “ Not us Americans, in ages long past they were used in china and Mongolia mostly as beasts of burden before the invention of cars, they were still in use in some places when the faro robots came.”  
“China and Mongolia, I have not heard of such lands, are there tribes and people there? How far is it from here?” Olin asked with curiosity.  
“A long way from here, another entire kilometre, over three thousand miles, and entire ocean and quarter of a continent are in the way. One of the eluthia cradles was in western china.” Juan spoke.  
“ Euluthia cradles, what are those? Olin had to ask, his interest peaked.”  
“That is where you people began about seven hundred years ago, before the Carja, before the Oseram. The very first generation of humans released into the restored world. It’s was near the old city Colorado springs, south of Denver.” Juan continued, scratching his short beard as the meal was cooking, a coyote, a strange meal indeed was turning on a spit, the pelt was already drying out to be part of someone’s fur jacket. A few sweet potatoes of the summer crop were still being handed out, the last of the supply, the less sweet, normal potatoes would last a bit longer in to the autumn.  
“So you’re saying the humans in the world were remade, why was it so, surely some of you old ones survived the fall.” Olin asked.  
“Nobody did, say for that AI Gaia, and a few hundred people in cryosleep, everybody died, humanity outright went extinct.” Juan continued, the flames illuminating his olive skin and black ringlets, at this point he had begun to get some new warming locally made clothes, a wolfs pelt hung over his shoulders, contrasting the thinner plastic jacket beneath, the pelt almost not fitting the bright dark blue jacket.  
“How, everybody dead, what happened.” Olin had to ask concernedly.  
“ The faro machines, the same ones the shadow carja dug up, there are millions of them dead around the world, hades turns them back on, when the entire machine plague started form one corrupted horus machine on the opposite side of the world.”  
“How, you’re saying the faro machines killed everyone.” Olin became more concerned, some of other oseram listened in.

“ They consume living things for fuel, building more of themselves form any metal they find, they were unshakable, uncontrollable, a horde that was unstoppable, they tore through entire nations in just days, they poisoned the air and oceans until every living organism was completely killed. Everything that lives had to be bought back by the hephestus machines, Gaia and other parts of the zero dawn project. The entire world had to be built anew. The process is still not finished. Those machines that the shadow Carja raised form the ground, they are controlled by hades, the reset mechanism on the machine that is Gaia. If it takes control of the control towers, it will wake every other faro machine in the world and they will kill all of us, including the shadow carja” Juan spoke.  
“By the forge, they do truly mean to end the world, we need to stop them.” Olin gasped at the realisation of this.  
“Who is going to rule us!” Mary, another one of the staff of Elysium called out. In an argument behind us.  
“ the old ruling chief’s family here is dead.” One oseram called out.  
“Aristocratic inheritance, seriously? Another asked.  
“ Don’t you old ones do it, why won’t someone just step up to the mark and claim themselves ruler.” Another Oseram called out, her name being Hirath.  
“Dictatorship no, it should be a democracy, and I offer to run.” Finial another voice ran out. One of the voices came from a dark haired man, another of the old ones, originally an Canadian boris arthurson.  
“Then we must make our own nation, this town was already an independent nation to begin with. A democratic nation with a constitution to reign in the rulers of our nation.” Another rwoman came up to the group, the blonde haired teen name Ilsa proposed the beginning of the first election of Elysium.

Another was a red haired woman named Sansa Rush and finally one oseram earldomen son from the next town over named Garath Oresman.  
Three political parties were formed form this. The Elysium conservative party, the liberal societal improvement party and the oseram peoples party,  
These three parties all took time to create their electoral campaigns, through the latter of which were a bit unsure of how to proceed with this whole democracy thing. Only the vote would tell which one got the job.

That night the election was set up informally, just some lightly lighting up stage inside elysiums upper levels, there were three candidates, Boris, Sansa and Garath.

The main hall was filled with seats, barbequed elk and potatoes was the meal served, the elk of which was shot that day, after taking free, it was decided that no more elk should be taken at the moment, except on election day, perhaps to protect the recently introduced species or to start a new tradition.

An electoral podium was set up for the candidates to come out, the three parties having a day to prepare. The lights shone down o the stage as the first of the three potential presidents prepared to come out.  
Boris came out first.  
“I am Boris Arthurson, I am the candidate for the Elysium conservative party. We come from many nations, many ethnicities, most of them have been destroyed, a strong leader is needed to guide and protect us in the new world that has wat it takes to guide us to growth. Even though Apollo is gone, we have enough knowledge between all of us to keep our cultures existing in some form. We can preserve the diverse cultures of the past and build a society comprising of all cultures, or all those at are left. We will rebuild what we can of the metal world, under my leadership that is…” half an hour later Boris finally finished. The next contestant came forwards.

Sansa began next, the dyed red hair wastied up in a bun, her brown eyes were darker than her olive complexion by some degree.  
“I am Sansa rush, I was another scientist working on the zero dawn project, I never expected to have a chance of possibly leading all of yours until it was announced there could be an election. Why do I want to be president. It is for the good of us. We are the last bastion of civilization in this world,21st century civilization at least. We must first help pull ourselves back onto our feet, save those under the enslavement of the shadow carja, destroy hades and after that, we should built a country for all nations and peoples, the paradise this world was support to be.” Sansa continued onward for another half an hour as well. Then the final contestant came up to the podium.

“My name is Garath, son of Onrulu chief of the steelsong clan, we were the neghbors of this town, however the original rulers here are all dead, so someone needs to rule her and represent us to the earldomen council. I believe myself to be the candidate you need. I can raise you band of survivors back into a civilised nation again, helped by the wisdom of the old ones, we will get vengeance upon The shadow Carja, rip their empire down and free our brothers and sisters form slavery we will contact the sun Carja, Nora, Urartu and anyone who will listen. While the other candidates are stuck In the past, I am in the here and now, knowing how this new world works.” Garth then continued of another 20 minutes with is speech.  
After this point the polls opened, the election to determine who would rule the new nation had begun, the vote for the constitution had also been put up, based on the constitution of the US of old.


End file.
